Eric and Lisa have been married for over 18 years. Both are vegans who have a passionate and fiery approach to their personal and professional lives and are extremely dedicated to helping others.

Eric and Lisa own four yoga studios and both serve as instructors. In addition to running their business, they teach classes and workshops where they deal with issues such as family crisis and addiction. Lisa describes what she does as, "helping people connect to their supreme self."

Lisa claims that Eric is much more easy-going, carefree and trusting of others while she has the ability to see people for what they really are — an ability that will undoubtedly come in handy on the Race.

Neither Eric nor Lisa are afraid to challenge one another to be the best people they can be and no matter the challenge at hand, both are open to working together to find a solution. They hope that their experience on the Race will further solidify a marriage that they consider a true blessing.

How does a team "look" boring? and I really wish the racers threads wouldn't turn into a prediction game

Sorry puddin, i normally like to give a first hand prediction of the team pre-season in their profiles and i've always been doing it this way all along. It's just a little fun prediction based on what i read and see from a particular team and a thought/vibe i get coming from this team. And this team "look" boring because of their pictures.. they look like they are stoned or forced to take photos. For me, photographs taken can say alot about a person personality/character and this is what i get from them.

Of course, i can be wrong too. And that is when i come back to this thread to take back my words/feelings on this team and see the changes that i've made/felt for this team pre and after season.

I am eager to see more of them! I loved their energy and excitement and plans in the video, and think the focus and discipline they must have to do intense yoga and overcome addiction would be a big asset in the race! They are also gorgeous and I love their relationship vibe.

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

How does a team "look" boring? and I really wish the racers threads wouldn't turn into a prediction game

Sorry puddin, i normally like to give a first hand prediction of the team pre-season in their profiles and i've always been doing it this way all along. It's just a little fun prediction based on what i read and see from a particular team and a thought/vibe i get coming from this team. And this team "look" boring because of their pictures.. they look like they are stoned or forced to take photos. For me, photographs taken can say alot about a person personality/character and this is what i get from them.

Of course, i can be wrong too. And that is when i come back to this thread to take back my words/feelings on this team and see the changes that i've made/felt for this team pre and after season.

Let's not forget that the photographers (most likely) told them how to pose. They may not be anything like how they photograph.

For Eric Paskel, life is about seizing the moment. Lucky for him, he didn’t expect just how amazing the moment could be.

Eric Paskel, an MSU alumnus, and his wife Lisa Paskel, will be featured on the upcoming 15th season of reality show “The Amazing Race,” which begins airing Sept. 27 on CBS, after a client passed their name along to those in charge of casting for the show.

“It was just like, ‘OK, here’s this great opportunity to be together, do this really crazy stuff, see the world and let people see who we are and how we work,’” Lisa Paskel said. “It was exciting, it was a challenge — I love a challenge.”

For those unfamiliar, “The Amazing Race” follows between 10 and 12 teams made up of pairs of people with pre-existing relationships such as family members, friends and co-workers.

Although the challengers have to not only complete the race itself, they’re also required to make it to several checkpoints, while competing against the other teams and the clock to complete their tasks the fastest. The goal is to finish first, winning $1 million.

“It’s funny because the show came to us, we didn’t come to them,” Eric Paskel said. “It’s not something that would have popped up on my radar.”

The pair, who were suggested to the casting crew by a client, said they were never very familiar with the show before becoming involved with it.

“The reason why I knew about the show was because when I watched football on CBS every once and a while I would see these crazy promos for this show where people were doing some pretty wild stuff,” Eric Paskel said. “So when I saw the name, I recognized it.”

Although the show wasn’t an opportunity the couple sought out, the two jumped at the chance to have an adventure, and to spend some much needed quality time together.

“(It was) time with Eric that was long overdue,” Lisa Paskel said.

In addition to being a unique experience for the pair, MSU students will be able to see a fellow Spartan run the race.

“(They’re) close to home and you’re connected with them in some way,” said Anne Bailey, a prenursing sophomore. “You can brag about your school a little bit.”

The couple, who owns four yoga studios called Yoga Shelter located in Birmingham, Royal Oak, West Bloomfield and Grosse Pointe, currently lives in California.

Lisa Paskel said with all the retreats and trips they go on with clients and other people, the time together was something they were very much looking forward to.

“We rarely get to travel without a slew of people,” Lisa Paskel said.

Though the spot on the exciting, adventure-filled show was unexpected, sometimes you just have to say “yes” when this sort of thing comes your way, Eric Paskel said.

Kudos to them overcoming all their personal trials and tribulations. I hope they are about their word because they said a lot of "good for tv" stuff...but we will see...i'm not so sure about them yet...

Married yoga teachers Eric, 41, and Lisa Paskel, 43, have the dubious distinction of being the first team ever to get eliminated on The Amazing Race before it even began, coming up short on a needle-in-the-haystack, license-plate-finding task. "It just felt so strange because that's not what we signed on for, but it worked out for the best," Lisa tells TVGuide.com. How so? The pair subsequently went on their own "amazing adventure" and may soon be back on our TV screens with a new reality show. See what else they have to say about their short-lived stint on the series.

TVGuide.com: Your elimination was good TV, but it was unnecessarily mean. Did you have any inkling something like that would happen since there were 12 teams and they usually have 11?Eric: I realized in one of the seasons, there were 10 teams, in all the other ones there were 11, and I think there was one other with 12, so I knew someone was going fast. I said it to Lisa as well. [I was taken aback when they told us a team would be eliminated] because I know how much time and effort we put in to be on the show and I realized that for a lot of the other contestants, this was very big for them. My heart went out to everyone because 1) I thought it would never be us in a million years and 2) I knew if it was us, we'd be prepared for it and we'd be OK. We'll move on to the next thing.

TVGuide.com: Did you feel like you deserved to travel somewhere?Eric: Yeah, but any time you're on a show that involves elimination and drama and you need to sell that, there are always going to be twists and turns. The show, they definitely took a risk with that because they had no idea who they were going to eliminate. They probably thought, "Mostly likely it will be these guys," and we'd like to think they felt pretty bad too because they would've loved to have us on.Lisa: We've gotten thousands of e-mails and Facebook [messages] in the last 24 hours of people just saying how we taught them so much, how to skin their knees and get back up with dignity.

TVGuide.com: You guys were really calm there.Eric: We wake up every day and we prepare ourselves through study and yoga practices to face whatever the world is going to be like out there that day. We woke up that day, prepared ourselves and got on that bus for the Race. As big a deal as this seemed to so many people, it was no big deal for us because we have what matters. Our life is full of such wonder and goodness that it would really be disrespectful to the people we love, to the things we have, to the experiences we've been through to be caught up in not getting a freakin' license plate.Lisa: Our bus ride was longer than our time [on the Race]! We were also standing in a very impoverished area of Los Angeles and I was thinking, "We lost the Race, but there are kids up the street right now that don't have food on the table." We live a charmed life. I came home to my beautiful children and I left with the man I love.Eric: We were also the first team to ever leave the show too. We didn't go to Elimination Station [where eliminated teams are sequestered for the duration of production]. We took off and went to India.

TVGuide.com: You left voluntarily?Eric: Afterward, we said, "Listen, you guys threw this at us and honestly, I don't know what else you have in store, but no, thank you. We're 20 minutes from our house and we had plans this summer, which was to go to spend time with our teacher in India." So we went there. We're not into spending three weeks somewhere and not knowing what it would be like. We had no trust that it was something that would be good for us and good for our reputation, so we took off and we wound up having the most wonderful time that we could possibly have.

TVGuide.com: What happened with the license plates? The way they edited it, it seemed like you guys, and Lance and Keri figured out the symbol at the same time.Lisa: Eric was the only person aside from Justin that actually saw the clue on the paper. Everybody else grabbed the license plate by luck. [Keri] saw Eric show me the clue, and that's how they saw it. They made [the clue] look so bright and bold on TV, but it was just a little bit embossed and very teeny on the paper, so it was hard to see, but ultimately Eric did see it. It didn't matter anyway since everyone grabbed them by luck. In fact, they didn't show this, but we got into a tug-a-war over a license plate with the country-singing Christian couple [Mika and Canaan], and they got the plate. He pulled it out of my hand. It is what it is.

TVGuide.com: You know who wins, but do you have a favorite?Lisa: We don't know who wins. We didn't go.TVGuide.com: You didn't come back for the finale? Did you stay in India?Lisa: Yeah. We just said bye-bye. But they're all great. I hope they all win.

TVGuide.com: What's next for you guys?Eric: We're just finishing up a contract with Leftfield Pictures that is going to be producing a pilot for us called The Ordinary Gurus. It's going to be a day in the life of the Paskel family. We have four yoga studios and a fifth that will be opening in Studio City, and dozens and dozens of teachers, employees. It will be Intervention meets Work Out meets The Osbournes. ... We have an infomercial that I'm shooting in November for a DVD series I have out called Explosion.Lisa: In the meantime, we run teaching and training. We're leaving for Michigan where we have 80 people we've been working with for the past month. We've been nonstop since then. We showed up to do the best we can on the show. Sometimes the best doesn't look how we want it to look, but it's just another experience. It's not the core meaning of life, but it's great entertainment, right?

And somewhere some CBS exec is chortling, thinking this brought ratings.

Logged

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

And somewhere some CBS exec is chortling, thinking this brought ratings.

I'm reading comments where people are going to tune out, heh, I wonder what genius thought this twist up? By the way I think Eric and Lisa were really cool about this but still, it has to hurt. They took one for the team and are heroes in their own right

And somewhere some CBS exec is chortling, thinking this brought ratings.

I'm reading comments where people are going to tune out, heh, I wonder what genius thought this twist up? By the way I think Eric and Lisa were really cool about this but still, it has to hurt. They took one for the team and are heroes in their own right

My money is on BVM...

They both seem delightful and have a great sense of what is most important in life.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan